It’s been an entire year of practicing in Direct Primary Care! While it has been a learning curve, it has also been an enjoyable journey. Here are some things I want to share:

#1. Patients are craving thorough physician-teachers. They now come into the exam room with a lot of information, but not always a lot of context. Physicians (especially primary care physicians!) are now, more than ever, teachers. We are the expert coaches tasked with helping patients understand their bodies, their results, their medications, and their options. This takes time, trust, and is incredibly rewarding!

#2. Patients (and probably most doctors) don’t understand how health insurance works. This is not a knock on patients; insurance is likely designed to be difficult to understand. However, a little information goes a long way. Taking just 5 minutes with a patient to review their insurance card and explain their deductible could save them hundreds of dollars. Terms like “High Deductible,” “HSA,” “Health Share,” and “cash discount” should not be foreign to savvy consumers. So many people think DPC only adds expense to their healthcare costs. For some that may be true, but there are so many situations where DPC membership saves people money AND provides them better care. As an aside, it’s my personal mission in life to break down the myth that health insurance equals health care! The reality is that you can get quality healthcare without health insurance, and health insurance does NOT eliminate all the barriers to accessing quality healthcare.

#3. DPC is NOT functional medicine. I’ve encountered this misconception often! When I started practicing DPC, what changed wasn’t what I practice—it’s how I practice. I’m still a board-certified family physician (and now board-certified lifestyle medicine physician, too) practicing evidence-based medicine. I follow the same medical guidelines, use the same proven treatments, and recommend medications when appropriate. The difference lies in Direct Primary Care’s ability to remove many of the time constraints faced in traditional practices. Instead of trying to fit everything into a 10-15 minute visit, I have the time to understand the whole person, focus on prevention, and help patients build healthy habits that can prevent or even reverse many chronic diseases. You could say I practice better medicine, not different medicine.

DPC is truly a passion for me! It’s what I was born to do, and I’m so glad I found it. Keep following.